Byzantine Empire, the Empire that lived more than all the others in human history was undoubtedly a Greek Empire. The Great Byzantine Empire lived for 1100 years and it was the successor of the Roman Empire. Rome managed after long and difficult wars to occupy metropolitan Greece and the Greek states of the east, Egypt, Syria and Asia minor. After that incident came an unavoidable "response": Superior Greek civilization conquered Rome!
I must note here that Romans were a Greek tribe and it was very easy for them to understand and accept the metropolitan and the Hellenistic Greek cultures. So the Roman empire slowly transformed to a Greek Empire and that became clearer with the establishment of the Greek city of Byzantion as the capital of the Empire instead of Rome. Byzantium renamed Constantinople in honor of the Emperor Constantine that established it as the capital of the Empire.
Divine Greek language and specifically in its Attic form, took the place of the Latin that used to be considered as the official language, even though the Greek was always the common language in all the eastern part of the Empire and in Rome that all the Superior class people used Greek language instead of Latin and they were very proud of it!
So the Byzantine Empire's official language was Greek. Also the education was Greek, including, Epic poetry (Homer Iliad and Odyssey), Philosophy (all Great Greek philosophers) and geometry, astronomy and mechanics. When the German tribes destroyed and occupied the Western part of the Empire(todays French, Spain and Italy including Rome), the Empire had under its power Greece, Sisely and south Italy, Asia minor, Syria, Egypt and Cyrhnaika, all Greek territories, so the population was all Greek with some other minorities.
So the Byzantine Empire was fairly called by most of the western historians as "the Greek Empire" and it was a great glorious state that saved and protected the famous Greek culture and Nation for more than a thousand years till the sword of the Ottoman turks fell upon the Empire that was betrayed from the Pope of Rome during the 4th crusade that destroyed the Empire, the continues attacks by the Western forces and the fanaticism of certain monks that instead of joining the army and protect their country used to go into monasteries and become monks.
Byzantium fall in 1453 and its last Emperor Heroic St.Constantine IB'Palaiologos died in the gate of St.Romanos fight with excellent courage as a simple soldier without surending the Empire to the Turkish Sultan. That gave the ethical strength to the enslaved Greek Nation to live during the barbaric Turkish occupation from 1453 since 1821 that the children of Greece managed to throw away Turkish tyranny and be reborn ed as a state.
Learn more about this author, George Papasimakis.
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